Definitions
smart battery: A battery equipped with specialized hardware that provides present state, calculated and predicted information to a battery charger or a SM bus Host under software control. As used herein, the term "smart battery" refers to any type of battery which contains circuitry to determine and communicate information/data related to a condition of the battery to an external circuit.
smart battery charger: A battery charger that periodically communicates with a smart battery and alters its charging characteristics in response to information provided by the smart battery.
SM bus: The System Management Bus is a specific implementation of an inter-integrated circuit (I.sup.2 C) bus that describes data protocols, device addresses and additional electrical requirements, designed to physically transport commands and information between the smart battery, SM bus Host, smart battery charger and other smart Devices.
SM bus Host: A piece of portable electronic equipment, such as a laptop or notebook computer, powered by a smart battery. It is able to communicate with the smart battery and use information provided by the battery.
Status Condition: A condition related to a smart battery which includes, but is not limited to: percentage (%) charge, time remaining to fully charge, maximum current amplitude to charge, maximum voltage amplitude to charge, and the duration of time the battery is able to supply power to a device at a specified power consumption rate.